15. ZOMG, Can It Be? An Update!!!

The first one who reads this post and tags my chatterbox will gain extra COOL points with me because you’ve been faithfully browsing my blog (or so I think, you may be lucky). For those successive ones after the first, well, I’ll still regard you as cool :)

So, almost about half a year of hibernation, finally I decided to write something. Why? I don’t really know. The feeling of just updating something just came to me, and I can’t shake it off even though I try to procrastinate and hope that it’ll fade away. So here I am, writing away…

After staying one year in Australia, I’ve come to conclude of its pros and cons. One thing I love about Australia is that the people there are so friendly. From the day I arrived at Australia, I felt the significant change in people-to-people interaction in Australia. Everywhere you go, say for example a store or shop, the people will always greet you with a warm welcome, and they are so much more friendly and polite compared to Malaysia, and you can’t just help but be friendly as well. Besides that, the weather conditions in Melbourne are so much nicer in the sense that it’s cooling, albeit a bit dry. When it rains in Melbourne and if you don’t have an umbrella, usually you can just walk in the rain because the rain droplets are so tiny compared to huge droplets here in Malaysia. Foodwise, the portions served in Australia can be comparable to American-sized meal, maybe a little smaller. That is to the guys-who-can-eat-a-lot-and-not-gain-weight benefit. A lot of people commented that I’ve become thinner, but I shall set this straight: I have been eating a considerable amount, probably skipped the occasional breakfast because I’m too lazy to get up so early in the morning, but that can be compensated with the midnight snacking of biscuits, instant noodles, and chocolates.

So therefore, me = high metabolism = good for me = *evil laugh*

While we’re on the subject of food, I must say that I miss all the different varieties of food that I love and cost a lot less compared to Australia. In Australia, the taste of Malaysian food is hard to find in Melbourne, and even so the food does not really compare to back home. I also miss my home-cooked food, because my mum and my maid can cook awesome dishes. I missed mamak, Japanese food buffet, Chinese food, western food, etc. Ever since I came back, I’ve indulged in a lot of my craved dishes. Secondly, Malaysia is the place where I meet up with my friends from church, school, college, etc. During the holidays, people come back home and this is the place where we meet up and catch up on what’s going on. I still have yet to see a few friends… Other than that, it’s nice to see family again, both old and young which radiate joy and love in their own special way.

A quick update on what I did since I came back to Malaysia:

- Met up with a few friends, particularly Yang and Ter with expeditions to Murni and Williams

- Went to get new glasses since mine was battered out of shape by basketballs

- Indulged in lots and lots of food

- Helped out in Form 3 Sunday School Retreat

- MYF Christmas Party

- WoW and DotA a lot more (since I have unlimited broadband now)

- Youth Quake IV

That’s about a summary about myself so far. Any further details or prying into my life can be included in conversations when we meet up, if not cannot lah want to talk to me but stone there only because trying to figure out what to talk about…

14. Holiday Update!

Well, this post is long overdue, and I think that an update is imminent since my last post was about 2 months ago? It’s just that I’ve not really sat down and thought about something to write, or nothing really worth jotting down happens. Anyway, here’s a vague summary on what happened on my three weeks of holidays, which can be described overall as unproductive :P

Week 1:

Moved out of IH and into my dad's friend's (which shall now be referred to as "host") place in Nunawading, which is some suburb approximately 40 minutes from the city via train. I had to use the huge luggage bag to store 1 week's worth of clothing and one quilt. Besides that, I also had to lug to my laptop there and a backpack full of stuff too. Spend the whole week finishing up Season 1 of House, and my host's son decided to share with me the TV series "Angel" from Season 2-5 (one season is about 22 episodes which are about 40-43 minutes long respectively.) Didn't DotA because my program was screwed up for some reason.

On the weekend my church friends organised an outing to Marysville as a fun retreat during the holidays. We took a 2 hour drive there and lodged in a...lodge? 20 of us were there and we had a chance to create our own live fire in the fireplace. Our retreat was 2 days long, due to the fact that we arrived on Saturday and had to be back in church on Sunday afternoon. On the first day it was raining mildly, so we went to visit the Sculpture Garden in Marysville village. This sculpture garden is owned by some guy named Bruno who used to travel around the world to find inspiration for his paintings. Over time, he decided to settle down in Marysville and created this sculpture garden. He has a wife and I think 3 daughters, and all of them are extremely proficient in art. Must be in the family genes. He also has a documentary filmed that tells the tale of his journey around the world searching for ideas to draw them out on canvas, and also sculptures which he created. After admiring his works in the display room, we headed outside towards the sculpture garden. The amazing thing about the outdoor sculpture garden is that each of the sculptures are crafted out by using natural resources , e.g. rocks, tree barks or slabs of stone. The detail and beauty of each of the sculptures really makes you stop and just take in the dexterity of the sculptor. For a glimpse of his art, you can visit the website. At night it was still drizzling moderately, and our plans to visit Steavenson's Falls had to be put off. Sigh, and it looks so good in the picture too...

On Sunday we decided to head up to Lake Mountain to play some snow before we head back to the city. Sadly, when we got to the toll halfway to the ski resort, the sign said that there was no snowfall at all on that day or the days before. When we got up there we only saw a small patch of man-made snow, but we made good use of what there was. One thing I learnt: Never handle snow with your bare hands over a long period of time unless you have really thick skin or you're cold-blooded. Wear thick gloves before planning on engaging in some snowball fight. Also, snowballs don't seem as soft as they are (or at least those made from artificial snow). It's like grabbing the ice crystals of ice-kacang, making it into a ball and throwing at someone. It hurts like an actual rock hitting you, only more fragile. The group decided to head up to the ski trails and enjoy the scenery since we had time to kill before church. Took some pictures, and on the way back to the carpark we stumbled upon a huge chunk of snow about 50cm in diameter. A few of the guys attempted to carry it but as I mentioned earlier, frostbite is an issue. Kicking it along the trail only made the chunk more fragmented. We almost got it to the carpark though. One thing I disliked is that their bathrooms aren't equipped with warm water. When your hands are frozen and you want to warm them up with warm water, or even washing after visiting the loo, we came out with hands that are somewhat dipped in ice-cold water. Not a very great feeling. It's a wonder my blood didn't freeze over and caused a heart attack or something. So week 1 ends here.

Week 2:

Friends from Malaysia came over, from Malaysia, Canberra and Adelaide. Spent the whole week bunking with them, and really had a great time. LeeKuan , XinYi and Phoebe had arrived earlier, and the MC dudes from Malaysia arrived later. Since Melbourne's pretty boring if you don't have a car to go around visiting, we didn't really do much. The main events of this week shall be categorized accordingly for easier viewing:'

Food. The main thing that brings us Malaysians talking. We have yum cha, mamak, B.Y.O.s(bring your own or pot luck), and all sorts back there in Malaysia, and we're not going to hide it in Australia. Heck, it's part of our culture. Even on the first day of the MCians arrival, after having a huge helping of beef noodles, Minghong asked, "Eh, so what's for dinner?". Anyway, for the whole week, we had several different kinds of cuisines; Dim Sum, Korean, Vietnamese, Greek, Japanese (well, me and Justin had a few sushi rolls), and maybe some that I missed out. Other than the main courses, we had gelati(I'm sure everyone agrees that this pwns, even though it's winter), chocolate from Max Brenner, goodies like Tim Tams, Doritos and Shapes accompanied with dips just to name a few. On our last day, Sam Lim's parents even invited us for dinner. Despite eating extreme helpings over the past week, we didn't seem to have even gained weight. Well, me and Justin decided to weigh ourselves on the scale out of curiosity anyway. Ah, it's good to have such a trait - to eat as much as you like and still maintain your weight even without much physical activity. Even though beer was more commonly available in Australia, we didn't get to see Minghong drunk :). Perhaps another time...

St. Kilda's Beach. We had no plans for the afternoon, so we decided to tram our way down to St. Kilda's Beach for a little stroll. The main thing we did here was to goof around and take pictures of the beach. The beach was also the ideal place for the guys to pose around like boybands. 5 of us made up the BSB group; Me, Ter, Yewhorng, Minghong and Justin. Xin and Phoebe were the camera crew, and there were plans to drag Tat Wei into becoming our manager (since he wasn't there with us) and also launch an album since we have the album art settled in St.Kilda's. Sigh, the things that they come up with. Much has really changed since I last met them...or has it?


Great Ocean Road. We spent 72 bucks on a whole day tour of the Great Ocean Road, which is this 400km scenic route along the southern coastline of Victoria. The trip along the road started with a magnificent view of the beach, with large waves crashing at the beach. Occasionally over the distance we could see surfers attempting to ride the waves. They must be really fit to be surfing in the freezing water during winter. We also passed by a koala inhabited area and we tried to spot the furry koalas sleeping on tree branches. After a few hours of coastline, we reached Apollo Bay where we had our lunch for an hour before heading out to the 12 Apostles. Nope, this isn't some bibical thing, it's just a name given to some rock formations. Here's a brief description off the net:

"Glorious at dusk and dawn these giant rock stacks are a central feature of the spectacular Port Campbell National Park. The forces of nature gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs which became arches and when they collapsed, rock islands as high as 45 metres were left isolated from the shore."

One of the last stops of the visit is the Loch Arc, where a shipwreck happened and a guy and a girl were the only survivors of the tragedy. The girl, who couldn't swim, tried to stay afloat the mighty waves. The guy had to drag her to safety after an hour long battle against the waters. So, want to guess what happens next? Girl falls in love with guy after saving her life, got married and lived happily ever after. Well, not all instances are fairy tales. The guy and girl never kept in touch after the incident. The girl went back to Ireland and got married there and I don't know what happened to the guy.

Well, the trip ended with us guys a bit drowsy even though we spent virtually 90% of the time on the bus trying to get a few winks because we stayed up previously for some World Cup game. Minghong should have a few bad bruises on the head because he kept knocking his head on the plastic-thingy where the belt comes from for the next seat. I sat there at the beginning of the trip and it was really painful. Imagine Minghong getting bonked on the noggin for the rest of the trip. Ouch...Arrived back at the city at about 8.30 at night, and just chilled out in the apartment.


Battle Shits. Justin, Minghong and Yewhorng's favourite game. The idea originated from Harold and Kumar, if I can recall, where the 2 girls played this game in the toilet. The rules of the game are not known to me. You have to ask the masters of the game to explain the specifics. All I know it that the solid excretions are the ammunition, and the fruits are to prevent the 'gun' from jamming. Sounds grouse, because it is. Everyday without fail, a battle will take place, whether it's single player or a duel to the death :P


Random Side Events. Some of the small events that aren't as big, but still makes the MC experience a memorable one:

- MingHong has been nicknamed Johnny in the Gelati shop because he didn't know who John Howard was (he thought he was a football player)

- Yewhorng has been reeled in to the mystical powers of Ebichuman! (E-B-I-C-H-UUU!!! EBICHUMAN!)

- The character 'Hard Gay' has been added to our minds, so don't freak out if some of us suddenly calls out "Hard Gay! Woooooo!!!!!"

- A certain phone call I made to a church friend to borrow a cable to connect Justin's camera to my laptop sounded in such a way that I've been misinterpreted by the guys. Very funny... To add on that, Justin's camera is simply weird: has a different size port for the cable and different memory card. We had to make use of Xin's camera.

- Knob-turning is still evident in the MC-guys circle. On top of that, there's also whammy and double whammy, and if possible triple whammy?


So that concludes week 2! I don't have all the pictures with me yet, so...

Week 3:

About the same as week 1: eat, sleep, finish up Angel, and get ready to get back to uni. Was supposed to work on my Human Behavior assignment, but oh well... It's holidays anyway.

Post Holiday Week:

Had a hard time trying to get back to uni mood, which means get up early and go for lectures. After the first semester, I've decided that I should faithfully attend lectures :P, and study harder because almost everything is going to be new, and cramming 13 weeks of lectures and extra stuff in one day is impossible. Can't afford to slack that much now. But it's the first week anyway, and so the lazy mood begins...

12. Adoption Day - What Makes Thursdays So Special

Everyone has their own unusual behavior, be it common or uncommon among the population, whether it’s done consciously or unconsciously. I read Andrew’s post on his unusual behavior, and I too do some of those things as well, but I did pick up an unusual hobby when I arrived at Melbourne. While girls like shopping for just about anything, guys don’t shop that much, but still do, I go ‘adopting’ once a week, if possible. I shall try to pen down the origin of this habit as best as I can, and explain a few things as well.

First of all, the place of ‘adoption’ is the department store Savers up in Brunswick. If I’m not mistaken, Savers is actually owned by Salvation Army and what they do is they go around collecting stuff from homes and bring them to Savers to sell them, or anyone can just bring their unused stuff to Savers themselves. I got to know of this place when the O-Weekers of IH (those running the orientation) took us there to pick up outfits for an event. I came back another time later because I wanted to buy groceries nearby and I entered Savers and had a look around. I saw the rack with all the ‘animals’ and I decided to just browse through for the fun of it. As I was digging through the pile, I came upon this dog with a Christmas hat, which looks relatively brand new, and also a white bunny. For the price of $1.49 each, I thought to myself, why not. So as I was walking back home, I contemplated whether I should return one day and have an occasional look for more ‘animals’ to add to my ‘family’. As the idea evolved, I decided that I should go back on a weekday because I’m just too lazy to go out on weekends. Since Thursday is the day when my class starts at 12.30p.m., I declared on my calendar every Thursday Adoption Day, where I would venture to Savers to look out for more abandoned animals (they are second-hand stuff, so they can be regarded as abandoned) and adopt them.

It’s surprising what stuff people discard that’s still in good condition. So far, I have 8 in my family – 2 identical Santa Dogs (what a coincidence, considering I bought them on 2 separate visits), a Dalmatian, 2 Koalas, 2 rabbits, and one squirrel. I talked to Andrew on MSN yesterday, and we agreed that space was going to be an issue. My wooden rack is almost full, I can make some space for one more line of animals, but after that I seriously don’t know where to put them. So if anyone wants anything, they can just ask and I’ll see if I can pass them one way or another. Oh by the way, the Giant Koala is not up for grabs :P

Koala : *stones at you* Nah uh, you're not getting my food *clutches tightly*

Family photo!!! In case you guys noticed, I don't have any teddy bears there. It's not that they don't have any teddy bears in Savers, it's just that I don't really like them. I think they're too 'common'. So that's about it - my unusualness that I picked up in Australia ^_^

8. A Tour Around IH

For those who still don't know, those who know roughly but still don't know, and those who know, IH is the abbreviation for International House, the place where I'm staying at. The residents consist of about 80% international student and 20% Australians. It's 5 mins away by walking and 1 tram stop away from MONASH Parkville University, which means I get the luxury of leaving for uni 5 mins later and get there on time, though I always leave when lectures start and arrive 5 minutes late. Such is the nature of this procrastinator. IH is about 15 mins walk away from Melbourne Uni, but that doesn't really concern me. So anyway here's a series of pictures that might give a slight idea of how IH is like (I said slight, don't get your hopes up).

Okay, so here we are at the main entrance of IH. Nothing special to say, really. The hallway leads to the common rooms, where the IHers can hang out and read the newspapers there available, and also leads to the dining room, games room, and TV room.

The Dimmick dining hall. The setting's been altered a little because there's an event called Café International which is a fund-raising event and one of the biggest events of IH calendar. Part of the proceeds goes to some organization which funds doctors to perform surgery for free in 3rd world countries (I think). As you can see, there's the High Table elevated right at the back and every Tuesday and Thursday, IHers have to wear their academic gowns and the Head, Associate Head, tutors and a few guests get to sit there and have free flow of alcohol and orange juice while we lowly peasants only get tap water. Yeah, just like a Harry Potter dinner, just that food doesn't pop up from plates and we don't normally get seconds.

The games room. Here we have a snooker table, a foosball table, and a dart board. This is ideal place for hardcore snooker and foosball players because the games here are free, which means you get to play as long as you want for free, but be considerate to others who want to have a go. Sadly, I'm not really into either game.

The TV room, where we have the basic channels and also Foxtel, which is like ASTRO back in Malaysia, just that it's more superior in the sense that it has way more channels. I remember spending a bit of my 2 week Commonwealth Games break here watching the 12-day The Simpsons marathon.

A portion of the Clunies block. The major problem of this building is how lame the walls are at blocking sound. One of my seniors said that if someone from the far end of the corridor was having sex and making loud noises, it can be heard at the other end. I've never gone into Clunies before, so I'm just quoting.

This new building which was build recently is referred to as 'New Building' because a name has not been agreed on for it yet. This building can be described as the 'IH Hilton' as my Associate Head puts it, and it's for those who are super active in the activities of IH. The way the room allocation works is by point system, where you gain points by getting involved in something and at the end of the year if you accumulate enough points, you have the possibility to move in to a better room.

This funny round building is called Scheps, the building where I'm staying. I live on ground floor, so it's convenient for me to get out of the building compared to those up in 3rd floor onwards. The dinky little building on the right is the gym and it's connected to Scheps.

My small room. Though it is small, I don't actually need that much space. I am quite comfortable in this small room. The only lame thing is that if I want to go to the bathroom, I got to walk down the corridor to the end and I have to bring my keys. The shower however, is right opposite my room.

My work desk, or sort of. I find it okay at the moment, but when I progress along the year and more stuff comes in, I might find space and issue. Now, a few questions you might be wondering:

Q: Wow, is that really his desk? So neat!
A: DUH, of course I clean it up before taking a picture. You don't go to a photo shoot and not groom yourself right? I'm not Voon Wei. I visited his house a few times and his desk pwns NEAT in the face. If you displace his book on a pile or whatever by just a few micrometers, he makes sure it's back to the way it was. Seriously, go ask him.

Q: What's that whole pile of clothing on the right?
A: That's just my clean laundry waiting to be ironed out during the weekend (or when I find the time) Anyone volunteering to help me out here?

Q: What are the few odd colourful lines on the water bottle?
A: I managed to sneak out a few labels from my pharmacy practice laboratory and for the fun of it I decided to stick it on my water bottle. They are: "Keep Out Of The Reach Of Children", the red diamond-shaped "Flammable Liquid", the yellow "This preparation is to aid sleep. Drowsiness may continue the following day. If affected do not drive or operate machinery. Avoid alcohol"and the orange "This medicine may affect mental alertness and/or co-ordination. If affected, do not drive a motor vehicle or operate machinery"


Well, that about concludes our tour. Any questions can be forwarded to me, and I will attend to you ASAP.

7. Doraemon Theme Song

I presume everyone’s familiar with the Japanese cartoon ‘Doraemon’? For those who have watched it on TV, or basically on video, you won’t really escape the theme song that is just too cute to resist (for most kids anyway). So I had a Japanese class tute in IH, and we learned the ‘Do-rae-me’ song in Japanese. After that, someone raised the question whether the teachers (who are residents of IH as well, and are still students) knew how to sing the theme song for Doraemon. So in the end, we learned it and the meaning of the lyrics.

こんなこといいなできたらいいな
Ko n na ko to i i na de ki ta ra i i na

あんなゆめこんなゆめいっぱいあるけど
An nn na yu me ko nn na yu me i ppa i a ru ke do

みんなみんなみんなかなえてくれる
Mi nn na mi nn na mi nn na, ka na e te ku re ru

ふしぎなポッケでかなえてくれる
Hu shi gi na po kke de ka na e te ku re ru

そらおじゆうにとびたいな
So ra o ji yu (u) ni to bi ta i na

はいタケコプター
Ha i ta ke kop u ta (a)

アンアンアン
a nn a nn a nn

とってもだいすきドラえもん
To tte mo da i su ki do ra e mo n

(Translation)
That thing is good, I want to do it
This dream, that dream, I have many of them but (cannot fulfill)
Everything (dream) is granted
With the miraculous pocket he grants (my dream)
I want to fly freely in the sky
Right! Bamboo Copter!
An An An (sound to make the song cute, does not have meaning)
I love Doraemon a lot

This is just the first part of the song, the rest of the song wasn’t brought up due to time constrains. It was fun knowing the meaning of the theme song of one of my past cartoons which I have left behind and moved on. I have to say, we had a fun time in the class trying to sing this song. Note that I still can’t read Hiragana well, neither can I construct a sentence well, and neither do I have any vocabulary. So, I’m still a noob at Japanese. Hey, at least I’m exploring the language, just as everyone else in the class is. Now this song is stuck to my head. Dangerous…

(Plays in head repeatedly: “アンアンアン　とってもだいすきドラえもん“)

5. 我生锈的华语(My oh-so-rusted chinese)

I was talking to Felix on MSN and suddenly he just popped some chinese characters into the conversation. Curious, I asked him how to insert those characters, and after much teaching, I finally get to put in chinese characters as well without any additional programs. So we spent about half an hour trying to converse in chinese while I was waiting for DotA. It was a bit hard trying to come up with the correct words as I browse through the remnants of my Chinese education after such a long time. My primary school experience wasn't really something that I would like to cherish, and I didn't really had the motivation to study (well, much less compared to now). Anyway the conversation between me and Felix can be described as 香蕉教香蕉华语, or banana teaching banana chinese. We weren't really particular about the grammatical issues of our sentences because we still banana-ish. Anyway, it was fun, and we should do it again next time ^_^.

谢谢你很有耐心教导我, 礼冠先生。下次再见吧! (Thanks for your patience in teaching me, Mr Felix. See ya next time!)

Sigh...I think I need my mum's services in chinese interpretation...

Speaking about chinese, my friend hypothesized about those from China with very heavy accent unable to pronounce words that end with something like "oos", e.g. juice because there isn't any chinese characters that ends with a sound like "oos". So if they want to say "Do you want to have some orange juice?" they would go something like "你要不要喝 olen jooo?". It's not really the fact that they can't pronounce it, but the way my friend presented it was quite funny. Okay, so the alternative would be 橙汁, but some people tend to rojak their sentences, so...

Just a hypothesis, just a hypothesis...

1. A Small Beginning, Out Of Boredom

So today I decided to just spend some time and just make a few changes to this blog and in a way declare this blog less inactive. Well, as I posted this link to my friend who kindly asked for it when I told him I was moving to blogger, he kinda went like "Wth? Haemoglobin? Why?". Well, since "hengboon.blogspot.com" would be a little bland and I thought something else would be more "unique" so I went for haemoglobin. Well since my initials are HB and since Haemoglobin is also abbreviated to Hb, so I thought that it would be appropriate. Hence, thus the weird name

As I have already decided on that name, I was thinking that it would be good if I slowed down once in a while from my busy schedule and breathe. Uni life has been, and will be even more, hectic ever since it started. Although at the most of the stuff are quite familiar to me, but now there are some terms that I have never even heard of. Well, methaphorically speaking, if the body doesn't recieve enought oxygen while it's working at its capactity, lactic acid builds up in the muscle cells and the muscle feels the pain. So, in life, there's got to be some point of resting to deal with the excess pressure which can cause pain to your life.

Anyway, hopefully I do pick up the initiative to actually study since the 1st semseter is already halfway in session. Funny how time flies compared to primary / secondary school...